History Repeats Itself
by Fantasy Cat
Summary: "Ella began to whimper. It almost made Olivia want to do the same, but under these circumstances she had to stay strong."  Some P/O and scary stuff happens in this fic.  *END*
1. Chapter 1

**Couldn't sleep last night until I started writing this. Have fun. :)**

* * *

Waking up, all she felt was pain. The worst of it was in Olivia's arm and leg. It either hurt like hell or it was completely numb, almost lifeless. It was then when Olivia realized what her eyes could not. They were broken and therefore could hardly move.

In the darkness, her good arm reached out and found what felt like a bar and she pulled herself up for support. She now had something to lean on as she needed to use her free arm to support her broken one.

"Ella?"

She was starting to remember now and it terrified her. "Ella?"

"Aunt Liv?"

Olivia felt movement from her right side as if a small animal was rubbing up against her. "Ella, baby, is that you?"

A small hand was now on her leg. "Aunt Liv." The despair was soft and heartbreaking yet even without being able to see, Olivia knew. "I can't see."

Olivia took her good arm and reached out until she felt her. She pulled her close to her until she could feel Ella resting against her. Safe. "Oh Ella."

"What happened? Where are we?"

"I don't know, baby. I…" Olivia involuntary cringed from the pain in her broken limbs. She could hear Ella crying now.

"The man," she said. "He told me to stop and close my eyes…and then he pinched me."

Olivia was confused. "He pinched you?"

"In the arm."

If it was anything that Olivia recalled feeling, then the man had to have given her something like a sedative.

Slowly the events that were leading up to their frightening predicament were finally coming to light. If only light were here in the very room that they were being held in.

* * *

_Olivia's schedule was piling up about as much as her sister's. She finally had a night where Ella could be with her family instead of being stuck at a friend's and then all Olivia had to do was relax with her niece until Rachel got home. They had more than enough time on their hands. She decided to take Ella to dinner and then a movie in the big mall. It was probably her only chance to have an outing with Ella before she was summoned for another case again._

_The movie was over by around 9. City traffic was going to be bad so Olivia had Ella go to the bathroom before they left. They went into the restroom together and Ella went into the stall on the far end. "Stay in there till I get you, Ella." Olivia had a right mind to be extra cautious at this hour. Olivia went into another stall and while she was in there she heard someone come in and heard squeaking wheels. It had to be a janitor waiting for them to come out. "Sorry," she said as she came out of the stall. "My niece will be out in just a..."_

_She froze when she saw the man standing there. And he certainly looked like no janitor. He had a large bin with wheels with him._

_Times like this, Olivia was glad she could carry a gun around. And she pulled hers out._

_"Aunt Liv?"_

_"Don't come out, Ella!"_

_Olivia had recognized the man as they were walking into the theater. She had kept a good eye on him and kept him in mind the whole time, but it seems he had the same idea with her as well._

_"Who are you?"_

_The man didn't say anything. Of course he wasn't going to explain himself. Yet somehow Olivia knew that he had targeted her specifically and it had nothing to do with weakness._

_"What do you want with me?"_

_The man pressed a hidden button in the back of the bin and the restroom started to fill up with steam quicker than Olivia expected. She could no longer see as the room started getting foggy so she quickly backed away trying to get close to Ella as possible but she suddenly felt a fist to her cheek. She used her own sense to struggle with her attacker but suddenly she was brought to the floor and her leg was in pain. With a fell swoop he had broken it. Olivia struggled with her arm until she felt something else break. With that distraction, Olivia felt something injected into her arm and it was enough to finally knock her out. The man grabbed her gun and pocketed it. He then picked Olivia up and carelessly dropped her into the bin. _

_He went over to the end stall and removed the lock with a screwdriver. There was Ella standing there terrified and in tears._

_"Just close your eyes," he said as he pulled out a syringe. "This will only hurt for a moment."_

_Ella had no choice but did what the man said. As soon as he injected her, Ella fell. The man placed her unconscious form into the giant bin with her aunt and closed her. He made sure to take down the Out of Order sign on his way out as he pushed the bin to the parking lot._

* * *

THUMP!

THUMP!

The noise was getting closer and Olivia knew that someone was coming. "Ella, get behind me." She could feel her niece shifting until she was grabbing onto the back of Olivia's shirt. It was then that Olivia realized that she no longer had her coat, or her cell phone, or her gun.

Olivia tried to look out but even with the sound of footsteps just a few feet away, she could still only see black.

Ella began to whimper. It almost made Olivia want to do the same but under these circumstances, she had to stay strong. Her protective instincts were deeply kicking in as a small light finally appeared from around the corner.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ooh muchas gracias for the reviews everyone. Yes, being unemployed has its benefits like writing fanfiction for no money. Speaking of which, I forgot my disclaimer again! Argh! I swear I'll put it up soon. And as for timeline: it's general with the current show and all. There might be some tiny AU aspects but I'll let you when and where that is yet to be seen.**

* * *

The light was there but then it disappeared. The footsteps got closer until Olivia heard loud squeaking, like an old door opening.

Still, it too dark and Olivia could barely see the tall shadow that stepped into their premises. Olivia was breathing heavily as she struggled with what to do. Until she realized that with half of her body crippled, she could do nothing but pray. Her good arm reached around to feel Ella's and just held on.

But the shadow took no interest in either of them. It stood by then and then turned until Olivia could hear clanging and then the shadow turned back to finally face her. Olivia caught a brief glimpse of something, like a reflective light.

It made sense. The figure in the room was wearing night vision goggles to avoid revealing itself. After the two stared at each other for a long time, the figure finally walked away and soon the squeaking was heard again along with the sound of chains.

As soon as there was silence again, Olivia began to relax but Ella was sobbing. "Aunt Liv, I'm scared. I wanna go home."

"I know, Ella. Me too."

Ella tried to hug her aunt until she heard her moaning. "Aunt, Liv. You're hurt."

"I'll be fine," she said. "I'm more worried about you. Are you hurt?"

"I'm cold and tired."

"Come here."

Ella felt around until her head was resting against Olivia's shoulder and an arm was wrapped around her. "It's going to be okay. Just go to sleep and maybe this will all be a dream when we wake up."

She heard her little niece sniffling. "Mommy's going to be very worried when she gets home."

"I know." Olivia didn't want to think about how this was going to kill Rachel, to know that her only sister and daughter were both missing. She could only focus on her current situation. Helpless as she was at this point, her main concern was protecting Ella and keeping her safe from whomever it was that was holding them here.

* * *

At around 1am, Peter was getting ready for sleep when he finally got a call on his cell phone. Surprisingly it was from Rachel. It was weird. These days, Rachel wouldn't be calling him unless she was trying to get in contact with her sister.

"Rachel?"

"Hey Peter?"

He could hear the worry on the other end. "What's wrong?"

"I was just wondering…are Olivia and Ella with you by any chance?"

Peter was surprised. "Um…no. Haven't heard from either of them."

"Neither have I. That's why I called. She called me around 6 and said she was taking Ella to dinner and a movie. I got off at 11 like I usually do but when I got back to her apartment, no one was home. Her car wasn't there. This isn't like her. She would never take Ella out this late. They always come home before I do."

"They never came back?"

"No. I've been calling her cell phone for hours. I think something's wrong." Rachel started to cry.

"Just hand on, Rachel. I'll be right over." Peter quickly called Broyles.

"Bishop, is something wrong?"

"Yeah," said Peter. "I think Olivia's missing."

It took a while for Broyles to confirm it. He could not get in contact with Agent Dunham despite all of his best efforts. And within that hour both Olivia and Ella became missing persons.

Everyone was now at the apartment with Rachel except for the two people who mattered to her the most. An entire operation was being set up in the living room. Broyles ensured the best in finding the two girls.

"Sir," said one of the agents. "We just got a call. Security found a federal vehicle in a mall parking lot past closing time. The license plate number is a direct match."

Rachel felt she was going to faint.

"Tell them I need security footage of the entire night, now."

"Oh god, Peter. This can't be happening." She was crying into Peter's shoulder.

"Rachel, I'm scared too. But don't worry. We'll find them."

Security footage from the parking lot was finally in their hands and they began surveying the earliest traces of Olivia and Ella found from around the hour when Olivia last called Rachel. They saw Olivia holding Ella's hand in the parking lot as they walked into the mall. But fast-forwarding the tape, the two never appeared again. They never returned to the vehicle not even long after all the other cars in the parking lot had left.

They looked at video footage from many other cameras in the mall but found no trace of Olivia and Ella other than being in the movie theater. They did however catch one glimpse of them rounding a corner but it couldn't be seen where they were going.

"This might be hopeless," said Broyles.

But Peter caught something. "Stop the tape."

The tape was paused a minute ahead. They could see a man with a large bin going the same direction that Olivia and Ella just headed. "Keep running."

The tape continued and after around 10-15 minutes later the man with the bin was heading back the same direction.

"Something's wrong," said Peter. The man in the video did not look like a custodian at all. The tape continued to fast forward the tape but Olivia and Ella never reappeared. "Do we have blueprints of the mall?"

"We can get them."

It took almost an hour but Broyles finally got his hands on a blueprint and located the area in the prints that matched the video surveillance. "There's only a restroom in that corner they just went in. But there's no exit there so they would've had to round back. And the restrooms doesn't have windows."

"So they never made it out."

They heard a thud and Rachel was on the floor pale as a ghost. "Rachel?" Peter hurried over to try and wake her up. "Rachel, come on!"

"That man with the bin is our guy," said Broyles. "I want him identified and found now!"

Peter managed to coax Rachel awake a bit after getting her some water. "Why?" she moaned. "Why would they want them?"

"I don't know," said Peter. But that was the question of the day, wasn't it?


	3. Chapter 3

Olivia had vowed to stay awake the entire night. As she waited, she could've sworn that she was hearing familiar screams but they were neither hers nor Ella's. They sounded like children's screams as well. And then she swore she felt something being brushed against her cheek, like a cruel déjà vu. She sensed it and knew it was the blade of a knife.

It caused her to swing her head and she hit her face against the wall…finally waking up from her nightmare. The stone wall was the thing she felt against her cheek as she had unwittingly fell asleep. Turning over, Olivia found Ella stirring awake. How were they going to cope now that they experienced last night was NOT a dream?

Slowly now, Ella was opening her eyes. "Aunt Liv?"

"Yeah?"

"We're still here aren't we?"

Olivia couldn't sugarcoat her response. "I'm sorry."

Looking at her niece, Olivia realized that they could actually see each other better than they did when they first arrived. Olivia shifted her eyes and found something she never thought would be here.

"Look Ella…light. It must be morning."

Ella shifted out from her aunt's embraced with Olivia moaning from the pain all the while. She got up and followed the source of the light. It was the first time either of them had ventured past the corner where fear had kept them since arriving here.

"Ella, be careful." There was nothing more that Olivia could do other than to look.

The cell they were in was rather small…not even half the size of a typical bedroom and everything was aging concrete or stone. Metal bars aligned themselves along the wall opposite of the light, and Olivia could see the long chains that she heard being set up the night before. Beyond the bars however, she couldn't see a thing, even with the light in the room it was though as if a second wall was just a few feet beyond their cell. Most of the bars had rusted to brown or green. Olivia could only determine that wherever they were, it was a very old place. Perhaps centuries old.

The light was coming from the back wall but it was very high. If Olivia didn't have broken limbs, she could easily push Ella up to it but the opening looked tiny.

"Eww."

"What is it?"

Ella wiped her face. "I felt water."

"It's probably a leak," said Olivia. She looked over and saw some objects lying on the opposite end of the cell. "What's over there, Ella? Can you see?"

Carefully she walked over. "It's a bucket with a lot of sand." Next to the bucket was a cardboard box with the flap opened. "And food!"

She half dragged, half carried the box back over to Olivia. Olivia looked in and saw the containers with food stored in them along with bags of chips and even bottles of waters. Enough food between the two of them to last several days.

Ella tried to reach for a bag of chips. "Wait," said Olivia.

"What's wrong Aunt Liv?"

"It's just…I don't want you eating anything unless I know it's safe." After all, Olivia still had no clue as to why either of them were here. She could only suspect that their captor wanted them (or at least one of them) alive for the next several days. But the food could be tainted. It could be poison or a drug.

She would have to test it. She picked up one of the bottled waters first. It looked like a typical store bought water with the cap seal and unopened but she wasn't going to take her chances. She opened the bottle and took a few sips until she was sure it was safe.

Then she opened one of the food containers.

To her surprise, it looked like lobster meat. It looked cooked at least but it did smell a bit. Olivia nibbled on a small piece. After a while…nothing.

"We're okay," she said with relief. She pulled out the other food containers and saw a worn out towel at the bottom the box. She tore at it using her mouth and it fell apart easily but the cloth was perfect for a makeshift cast.

"Ella, can you help me?"

She was happy oblige helping her aunt put together a cast for her arm. It was a small brief distraction at least from their current situation.

When they were done, Olivia's arm would no longer be bothering her as much. Her leg she would just have to make do.

There was nothing to do in the cell now but to sit around and wait. Olivia, whenever she had the strength to do so, did her best to analyze the situation. Without the ability to walk she wasn't of much help to Ella and she wasn't going to put her niece through any danger that would require her to be alone…even if there was a slight chance that she could get her out through a small opening of some kind. It was too much of a risk.

Ella came back to nestle under her aunt. "Aunt Liv, how long do we have to be in here?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think somebody will find us here."

"I hope so."

"Maybe," Ella yawned. "Maybe Peter will find us."

Olivia caught herself with a faint smile, the first since they were brought here. "I think he will," she said although really she wasn't all that sure at all. She knew that by now they had to be aware that the two of them were missing.

The light from the wall (possibly a crack) was getting dimmer. It was close to nighttime already? Of course their captor wasn't going to come to them during the day. It was better for them to come at night and instill the fear into both of them.

It was worse than that as Olivia would later realize. The sand bucket in the cell was their only means of a toilet and it was near humiliating for her to have to ask for Ella's help when she had to use it. These weren't the type of conditions she ever expected to expose her niece to.

Another day had passed and Olivia began to worry that no one was going to find them. She would need to find a way to let someone in the outside world know where they were before it was too late.

Night came and Olivia found herself on guard again, letting herself listen for the slightest bit of noise. She could only hear a familiar hum like the ocean waves. It might be a clue as to where they were. They could be closer to civilization than she assumed. Tomorrow she would have to come up with something but for now she needed to stay awake.

Their captor, meanwhile was three stories above them. Because the lower stories were made of stone he could easily walk around upstairs without being heard. Which was a good thing, as he was almost ready to begin the procedure.

* * *

**Yeah sorry not much happens here. Next chapter will be back to Peter's perspective and things will start to pick up as well as the motive for the abduction.**


	4. Chapter 4

"What do you mean you haven't found anything? It's been almost two days now!"

"Peter, we've exhausted every lead we could," said Broyles. "We've interviewed everyone from the movie theater staff to everyone who worked security that day. No one can seem to really I.D. this guy."

"You're gonna have to try harder," said Peter. "Rachel's a mess. That's the last of her family gone missing."

"I know. Right now our best objective is to assume that Olivia may have been targeted. Very few would dare to kidnap a federal officer and a child unless there was a motive involve. It's not enough to warrant it a Fringe case at the moment, but I wouldn't rule it out yet."

Peter grumbled wonderful. With every hour that Olivia and Ella had been gone, Peter was getting more and more agitated. They had to be in serious trouble for them to be gone this long. He had been spending the whole day between comforting Rachel and working with the investigators. Rachel would not be heading back to Chicago until she knew of her daughter and her sister's fates.

He went home and started raiding his fridge in which he had stored a good amount of liquor that was getting him through the investigation.

"Have they found Agent Dunham yet?" Walter asked as he joined his son in the kitchen to make a sandwich.

"What do you think?"

Walter apologetically stayed quiet as Peter began to hopelessly down a bottle of tequila. "Broyles think it might be a Fringe related reason but there's nothing to prove it yet. I mean, if it was Fringe related I can understand them taking Olivia…but not Ella, she's just a kid. Why did they have to take both of them?"

Once Walter was done eating his sandwich he said to himself "that is an interesting thought." But Peter seemed to have ignored him as Walter was probably thinking about something other than the kidnapping (likely food). "Don't worry, Peter. I do believe Agent Dunham will be alright," he said. Something about this kidnapping compelled Walter…got the wheels in his head turning. So he then went upstairs to the attic. He rummaged through some old boxes until he found a particular one he didn't expect to find. It was a shoebox that had a label:

'_Open in case something happens to Olive'._

He nearly had a heart attack. How in the world did Walter had this in his possession and not realize it was about Olivia?

He was nervous to open the box but when he did he found nothing but newspaper. He read up on old stock exchange prices and lottery numbers until he realized that he should've been reading the front page. _'Missing Children Found Dead in Florida Swamp Home. Serial Killer Could Be at Large.'_

Walter then noticed the date of the newspaper: 1984. That was around the year he and William decided to put an end to the Cortexiphan experiments. "So that's why," said Walter. He couldn't remember what it was that forced himself and Belly to shut down the Cortexiphan testing projects all together but now he did remember: the children who were kidnapped and found dead were all Cortexiphan subjects.

"Oh dear," he said to himself. He was slowly starting to remember why the label was necessary. He couldn't be sure but Walter was certain it was to protect Olive. She was their most powerful subject and a potential target of the supposed killer. He remembered working with Belly to talk to several families into fleeing the state. Olive's had to have been one of them. And Walter now recalled having his memory altered in case someone tried to question him. No one could know that Olivia was one of their test subjects because it was possible whoever kidnapped and killed those children had to have been someone who knew about the Cortexiphan project.

Could this be the man who kidnapped her and Ella?

* * *

When daylight came once more, Olivia decided that she could no longer wait around for their fate. Olivia had to take initiative regardless of her condition. With Ella's help, she got a good feel of their close-knit surroundings. Her fingers could reach up the back wall where the crack was seeping sunlight into the room.

It was just as Olivia hoped. The cement layering was weak and crumbling due to being very old and being overexposed to nature. If she could break off some of the stone, it might be big enough for Ella to squeeze through. But Olivia did not yet wanted to burden Ella with the idea of escaping yet. For now, she focused on using what they had to break through the rocks. But all they had was plastic from the food containers they were given. Not strong enough for any kind of digging work.

But then her eyes turned to the sand bucket. The bucket was rusty enough, that she could break the wire handle off of it. She needed Ella to help her since she had one broken arm.

"I need you to hold while I pull okay Ella?" It was painful and strenuous but with enough pressure they were able to break the handle in half and then remove one half of the handle from the bucket.

Olivia used this to work one handed on breaking through the rocks while Ella supported her taking some breaks in between.

"Will this get us out, Aunt Liv?"

"I hope so," said Olivia.

"I hope we get done soon."

"Me too."

Olivia was making headway with digging through the cracks of the weak stone allowing more light in. But she had to give up when it got too dark to work and so the two of them finally rested for the night.

"This could take a long time," said Ella.

"It won't be long," Olivia assured her. The pain in her limbs continued to worsen.

As soon as light appeared, Olivia had some food and tried to urge Ella to do the same.

"I'm not hungry," she said. "I don't feel good."

"You'll feel better if you eat. But you have to do it now before this goes bad."

"Why?"

"Because," said Olivia. "I don't think we're going to get anymore food."

That concern was enough for Ella to eat before they returned to work. Ella was quite helpful but sore from helping her aunt. But after many exhausting hours, Olivia finally pulled out a large chunk of stone. She quickly pulled herself and Ella to the side allowing the stone to fall to the ground with a large thud. The other smaller stones, she was quickly able to clear out as its cement layering was now weak as dirt. A small hole now appeared in the cell. Olivia peaked through and could see dirt and grass not too far away. All she needed to do was dig with her hand.

Olivia was smiling for the first time as her face could feel the warmth of the sunlight that traveled through the hole and into the cell. "We did it, Ella."

"But Aunt Liv. That hole is too small."

"Not for you."

"What do you mean, Aunt Liv? You're coming with me, right?"

Olivia leaned down to rest herself on the floor. "Ella, you need be brave for me. Because I made that hole for you. I'm going to push you through it and then you're going run and not look back." Olivia wiped the tears from her face. "I can't come with you, Ella. You'll have to leave me behind."

* * *

**Cry! Tuesday morning I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled out so I will try and write more tomorrow and get it posted on Tuesday before I leave cuz you may not get anymore after that for a while. Thanks for the insane amt of reviews.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Still in recovery mode from wisdom teeth removal but I figure I should use my brain power to write what I could. Sorry for the cliffhanger. They're a past time of mine.**

* * *

Ella shook her head. "No."

"It's going to be okay, Ella."

"You have to come with me. Please, Aunt Liv!"

Olivia remained very calm. To show the slightest bit of worry that was building up within her would only cause their last hope of escape to fall apart. "Ella, I wish I could go with you but I'll only slow you down. I can barely move."

Knowing it was inevitable, Olivia let her little niece cling to her shirt and wept. "I don't want to leave you."

"I know," said Olivia. "But I have faith in you, Ella. I know you can do it. You remember how I taught you to dial 9-1-1?"

Ella nodded her head.

"That's all you need to do, Ella. You get as far away as you can from here. Get to the street and then find a phone."

"But what about you?"

Olivia gave Ella a sad smile as she wiped her niece's tears. "I'll be okay. I want to give you your chance, and this might be it."

"I'm still scared, Aunt Liv." Ella hugged her aunt very tight and Olivia's turned to the cross pendant she had given her niece not too long ago and she cradled it into her hand. "You remember what I said when I gave this to you?"

"You said it would protect me."

Olivia smiled. "We're going to be okay, Ella. I just have a feeling we will."

* * *

Another day was winding down, and that wasn't a good sign. Walter finally returned from the attic with the box that he found to show to his son. Not long after did the Bishop boys hurried over to see Broyles so they could show them their newfound discovery.

"It's an interesting find. But there's nothing to show that these two cases could be related," said Broyles.

"It's all we have," said Peter. "Can't we at least look into this? We might be able to find something."

"We'll do what we can but we're talking about a serial killer who's never been caught or even identified."

"It had to have been someone who knew about the Cortexiphan experiments along with Belly and me," said Walter. "Which would include a numerous amount of assistants over the years."

"Do you have any reason why this killer was specifically targeted Cortexiphan children?"

"Well judging by the fact that the children were found without their eyes, brains, heart and other essential organs…"

"Oh god, Walter," Peter pleaded. "Just stop."

"I can only theorize that the killer believed the organs themselves were valuable because of the heavy amount of Cortexiphan running through the entire body."

"A black market," said Broyles.

"Precisely though I do not see what use Agent Dunham will be to them since the Cortexiphan in her system is not as strong as it once was but…oh dear…"

When Walter couldn't finish, Peter grabbed him by the arms. "Walter? What is it?"

There was that sudden look of dread on the old man's face. "I think I know why he would take the child," he said. "I think he's going to give her Cortexiphan."

* * *

Daylight wasn't going to be around for much longer. Olivia had to get Ella out now. Despite her broken limbs, she did what she could to support her niece and lift her up to the hole. "Can you reach it?"

"Yeah." Her small hands managed to grab something outside of the hole and she pulled herself out. Ella was nearly blinded by the daylight.

"Ella? Are you okay?"

Ella turned back towards the hole. She couldn't see her aunt, but she could still hear her. "It's too bright out here."

"You're gonna be alright soon," Olivia assured her. "Just do what I told you, okay?"

At that moment, Olivia was hearing something, the same noises she heard the night they were captured and the noise was getting closer. "Ella, go now!"

Ella cried again, "I love you, Aunt Liv."

"I love you too, baby girl."

Olivia waited inside and heard nothing more from outside of the hole. The footsteps continued in their advance, which in her mind was a good sign. A man appeared infront of the cell and his eyes locked with the big gaping hole in the wall.

"What the hell…"

But Olivia was quick to act and took her good arm placing it around the man's neck. She was going to hold him off as long as she could from going after Ella.

The man struggled in Olivia's grasp as he reached into his pocket for a syringe. He stabbed the needed into Olivia and she feel back, wincing in pain, freeing the man. It wasn't long before Olivia was lying on the ground unconscious.

Outside, Ella began walking around almost half-blinded by the sun. As her eyes slowly adjusted she could feel the warm breeze and heard what sounded like the crashing of waves. She continued movie forward until she tripped.

Whatever she fell into, it hurt. Her hands reached out to feel stone. Her vision began to clear until Ella could see nothing but blue skies and waters. That's when she realized that she was on a beach.

Fighting against the pain Ella got up and walked along the beach with the house she had escaped from just standing there yards away. She was getting frustrated. There were no streets and no phones like Aunt Olivia said there would be. And despite how far she walked, the house still stood there. She was trapped, going around in circles with no other streets and no other lands. The only escape there was would be to go into the water.

They were trapped on an island.

Soon Ella faced a dead-end at a slope of rock and quarry and was just about to give up. But then she spotted a small dock in the distance with a few boats tied up and everything.

But she didn't think things through when she decided to walk through the rocky slope in order to reach that dock. She lost her balance after only a few steps, and slipped and fell into the water.

Ella was helpless against the tide that was now carrying her, dragging her now from the beach she could no longer see until things went black.


	6. Chapter 6

**A treat and a cliffhanger for you oh so patient reviewers as I still recover from my wisdom teeth extraction. The recovery will take longer than I thought as a notice an incision gap in my gums today. On the other hand, the spoon diet is not too bad once you get use to it. And on we go.**

* * *

Olivia felt incredibly stiff and immobile. To move would either hurt or require a lot of force that she just no longer had in her. But soon she was slowly able to open her eyes and adjust to all the bright lights that were hitting her. She was lying down strapped to a medical bed it seemed. The room she was in looked like a hospital room with only one window. She turned her head and saw what looked like a beach outside.

Looking over Olivia was him…whoever he was. She recognized her captor by his eyes but the rest of her face was covered in surgical gear. A sharp needle was instilled into her arm. The broken arm now had a good cast and so did the leg. The needle was taken out and the man went to inspect the contents.

"O-negative. You're a Universal Donor. This works out perfectly."

"What are you doing?" she moaned.

"Just relax," he said. "…while I go and get the child." The man had his back turned to Olivia now as he removed his surgical coverings and then grabbed a jacket to go outside.

"No…Ella…" Olivia's speech began to slur and she was starting to feel dizzy. There was nothing she could do now but lie there and wait for the inevitable.

The man meanwhile walked out towards the beach. He knew there was no place for the child to go so she had to still be on the island somewhere. He checked the docks first. All his boats were still there. But then he saw something lying on the rocks not too far ahead.

He ran over and found it was the girl, lying on her stomach and coughing up water as he picked her up and carried her over the shoulder.

To Olivia's horror, she saw the man bring a soaking wet Ella into the room and placed her on a medical bed next to her that she was unaware of was there until now. "Ella!"

She could hear her moaning. "Aunt Liv…"

The man, now back in his surgical suit, was applying a similar needle into Ella's arm and was drawing blood out of her.

"What are you doing to her?" Olivia demanded.

"I just need to drain enough blood out of her for the transfusion."

"Transfusion?"

"Yes, the child will be the first of its kind. The first to ever have Cortexiphan donated from the recipient of another."

"NO!" Olivia began to wriggle madly. "I won't let you do that to her! She's my niece! Let her go!"

"Well, in that case. That will just let the bond between you two become stronger won't it? Of course you won't have a use for the Cortexiphan in your blood like she will. The compounds only function better in the developing bodies of children. Once they become adults the drug becomes weak on the organs."

Olivia was still yelling and screaming from her bed. Ella meanwhile was starting to get pale and dizzy from all the blood being extracted out of her but the man was now beginning the process of taking the blood he took from Olivia's body to transfer into Ella's.

By this point Ella was unconscious and unaware of the new blood going into her body. When the process was done the man removed the straps from Ella. "I will place her in a better room for recovery," he said. "She'll need plenty of food and rest for the Cortexiphan to travel through her entire body…and then the extraction will begin."

"What?"

The man said no more and just left Olivia as he took Ella to a bedroom and hooked her up to an IV to rest.

Olivia meanwhile began to feel dizzy herself from her loss of blood.

**A few hours later…**

Ella woke up in a strange bed with a needle in her arm. She was feeling strange but couldn't pinpoint what it was. It felt like she had woken from a nightmare. She was feeling far more anxious and terrified than she ever felt before.

"Aunt Liv?"

No one answered. She noticed how loose the needle felt in her arm and was able to pull it off with a slight tug. Slowly she crawled out of bed and looked around. On a nearby table she noticed her Aunt Liv's jacket, her wallet and even her gun.

She walked past the table and quietly leaned out against the doorway. Still quiet. Maybe there was no one here. But what was she to do? Should she run out? Where would she go now that she knew that they were on an island?

The thought then occurred to her that she should find a phone. There might be one somewhere in this house. She quietly tiptoed down the dark hallway until she began to hear a beeping noise and what sounded like running water.

Ella peeked into the former room she was in. Her Aunt Liv was still on the table unconscious. And a man was at the sink washing his hands. She then watched as he opened a cabinet and began to acquire sharp tools, knifes and drills that he placed onto a tray.

She quickly retreated back into the hall and ran back to the room she woke up in, hoping that the man didn't notice her up.

She waited…and nothing.

Desperately, Ella shifted through the items on table. Going through her aunt's jacket, she finally found what she was looking for…her cell phone.

But it was dead.

At that moment, footsteps were heard. Ella whimpered until her eyes were glued to the gun. She knew it was wrong. Aunt Liv had told her that it was not a plaything but a deadly weapon that should only be used to protect people from severe harm.

But wouldn't this be considered such a situation?

Without even giving it a second thought, Ella found herself grabbing the gun with her small hands and then stepped out into the hall.

The man was standing there, a crossed look between shock and humored on his face.

"Give me the gun, little girl."

Ella lifted the gun up, unsure that she was holding it right. "You leave my Aunt Liv alone."

"I won't harm her anymore than you would me," he said. For some reason, Ella knew that he was lying. Still she was deadly afraid and she could've sworn that the room was changing before her eyes. But she was too afraid to turn her attention to that. "Now give me the gun."

"No." Her fingers wrapped themselves around the gun in a desperate attempt to hold her grip…unaware that she had inavertedly pulled the trigger.


	7. Chapter 7

Ella's ears rang for a minute before she could grasp what happened and the gun fell from her hands. Fortunately, it didn't go off again. The gun landed in a pool of blood streaming from the forehead of the stranger that she had just confronted. He was now flat on his stomach.

Ella found herself slowly backing away, trying to keep her shoes from touching the blood.

"Ella!"

"Aunt Liv!"

Running past the dead body on the floor, Ella ran to the room and saw her Aunt Liv was still in one piece on the table. But she was much more paler now than she ever was.

Olivia gave a weak smile. "Oh Ella. You're alive! But the gun…"

"I…"

She didn't need to say anymore. Olivia got the whole picture. "Oh…"

"Aunt Liv." Ella held Olivia's hand. "You're cold."

"It's the…" Her voice was getting groggy as she realized that her blood was still being drawn out with no new blood going in. Ella didn't know how to stop it. "Plug," she said. "Pull the plug."

Ella got down to the floor and just unplugged everything. The humming finally stop but she started getting worried that she might have hurt her aunt in another way.

"You okay, Aunt Liv?"

Olivia weakly replied, "I'll be okay now. Ella, I need you to look for a phone."

Ella looked around and grabbed the portable phone sitting on a counter and handed it to her Aunt Liv. Olivia was starting to fade but quickly she dialed the number she needed and handed the phone back to Ella.

"Hello?"

Ella wasn't paying attention to the voice on the receiver. She was too busy noticing her aunt was now lying almost motionless with her eyes closed. "Aunt Liv? Aunt Liv, wake up!"

"Aunt Liv? Oh my god, Olivia? Olivia, are you there?"

But then she recognized the voice on the phone. "Peter?"

"Ella, is that you? Where are you?"

"I don't know."

Immediately, Peter hurried back to Broyles. "I have them. Ella's on the phone."

"Keep her on so we can trace the call."

Peter nodded while Broyles hurried to get the call traced. "Ella, stay on the phone with me, okay? Is your aunt there?"

Ella was staring at Olivia. "She's not moving."

"Where is she? What is she doing?"

Ella felt unsure whether or not she could describe what she was seeing to Peter. She knew that Peter was a very good friend this would upset. "I think she's sick."

"It's gonna be okay," said Peter. "Do you know where you are?"

"It's a house," said Ella. "…on an island."

She reached over to give Olivia a nudge. "Please wake up, Aunt Liv." After a long silence her aunt was slowly moving again but now was gasping and shaking.

It was enough to make Ella cry.

"Can you come get us, Peter?"

Peter looked over at Broyles who motioned his hand. They finally got their location.

"It's okay, Ella. We're coming now. Stay with her."

Ella didn't focus on counting the hours till help would arrive. She just crawled onto the table and laid down by her Aunt Olivia's side. Olivia was still cold but as long as Ella could feel her breathing, she would be okay…She had to be okay.

* * *

Hours later, the first copters arrived onto the island and the FBI arrived at the house, the body a man was lying there in the hallway to greet them.

"This could be our guy," said Broyles.

Peter passed by his father, Broyles, and the dead body and hurried down the hall were he finally found the girls.

"Ella."

"Peter!"

He gave Ella a great big hug. "I knew you would come," said Ella. But Peter's attention went straight to the ailing Olivia on the table.

"They're in here!"

Quickly the room began to fill up and Walter hurried over to inspect Olivia. "It's just blood loss."

Peter saw the IV and the bag of blood. "We better do this here. She won't make it to a hospital." With Walter's help, the hooked the machine back up so more blood was going back into Olivia's body.

"Is she gonna be okay?" asked Ella.

"She will be," said Peter.

"Bishop, outside."

Peter stepped back into the hallway where the man found on the floor was now being zipped up in a body bag.

"The gun is Dunham's but if she was on the bed…"

"You think Ella did it? She's just a kid."

An agent came up to Broyles. "Sweep's completed, sir. No other civilians on the island."

"Thank you."

Peter stood there in disbelief. "He could've killed himself."

"Judging by where the bullet hit and the range, it's unlikely."

Amidst all of the commotion of cops going through all the rooms, Peter returned to Ella and Olivia. Walter was called out of the room to possibly identify the body leaving Peter and Ella alone in the room.

"Ella?"

She looked at Peter nervously. "I didn't mean to shoot him. It was an accident."

"Don't worry about that right now," said Peter. "We should worry about getting Aunt Liv outta here, okay?"

"Is he dead?"

Peter managed to avert the question as paramedics stepped into the room ready to take Olivia away. Peter took Ella by the hand and the joined Olivia in the medical copter as they went off the island to the nearest hospital.

Back on the ground Walter looked over at the body.

"My team just found a double floor basement with a cell," said Broyles. "I can only assume Olivia and Ella were held there."

"It's just as I feared," said Walter. "The dead man Reginald Thorton. He was one of my original assistants in the Cortexiphan trials but after a year he claimed to have fallen ill. I was foolish to believe him but Belly was not fooled. They had an argument. Regin wanted to market Cortexiphan as a marketable drug. That was why he killed those children and collected their organs then."

Walter then joined Broyles as they continued to look for more stuff to possibly take back to the lab.

* * *

**Sorry for the long delay...life...writer's block all of that. Rest of the story will deal with Peter-Ella-Liv hurt/comfort stuff as soon as I can come up with it. Next chap should deal with the consequences of what happened to Ella. Oh my...**


	8. Chapter 8

After Ella was checked for injuries, Peter stayed with her…until the happy moment that Rachel finally came and mother and daughter were happily reunited. Olivia was still too stricken from her injuries but after a few more hours, she began to wake, and Rachel and Ella were there.

"Ella?" Olivia mumbled.

"Aunt Liv, you're awake!"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine now," Ella said.

Rachel held her sister's hand. "I was never more scared in my life, for you and Ella."

"Ella was reallyy brave," said Olivia. "Um…have you seen Peter? I need to talk to him about something."

"Actually he's right outside," said Rachel. "Ella and I will give you two some privacy."

The two girls left and Peter came in. "You're looking better, Liv."

She smirked "I wish. I'm going to be stuck in a wheelchair for weeks." Between the two of them, a long moment of silence was shared. Both of them seemed to be daring the other to bring up the question first. "Peter, I can't really remember everything that happened there. The last thing I remember was him giving Ella a blood transfusion."

"A blood transfusion? Why was he doing that? What was he giving her?"

"My blood. He was trying to see if my Cortexiphan abilities were transferable."

Peter sighed. "He's dead. He was shot with your gun. They found Ella's fingerprints on the handle."

Olivia began to cry. "Peter…I don't know if I can tell Ella."

"Eventually, she's going to find out."

"I know, but she doesn't need this. She's already been through so much. And she's just a child. She's too young to have to cope with killing someone…even by accident. And the Cortexiphan…Peter, if it does to her what it's done to me, I'll never be able to forgive myself."

"Olivia." Peter held her hand. "She's going to be fine. Ella's already been through the worst of it. And Walter can see if she got any traces of Cortexiphan. You never know. She could be clean."

"And the shooting?"

"The shooting was an accident. We all know that and if she hadn't done what she did, you would both be dead. We both have experience with that. We can help her get through this."

Peter continued to stay around the hospital with Rachel and Ella. Olivia would no doubt try to pull some strings from her own bed to get out of that place as quickly as she could. It was all a matter of waiting.

"Peter?" Ella was able to get Peter alone in the waiting room when her mom went to get some food. "I killed that man, didn't I?"

"Ella…" Peter's sudden pause had too soon given away the truth…that the man Ella shot did indeed die. "He was a very bad man. He was hurting you and Aunt Liv."

Ella still cried anyway. "Please don't tell my mommy. She'll think I was playing with Aunt Liv's gun. She doesn't like guns."

"But you weren't," said Peter. "You did what you had to to protect yourself… to protect your Aunt Liv. What you did was very brave."

"But it was wrong."

"Don't worry about it," Peter assured her. "Your Aunt Liv would be very proud of you."

But Ella was left still feeling very upset and insecure once Rachel came back with food and coffee. "I guess she's still a bit shaken up," said Rachel.

"She'll get better once Olivia is out of here," said Peter. He tried to derive the conversation away from Ella so she had nothing to worry about.

* * *

Olivia would finally be released the next day. It took some convincing on Peter's part, but Olivia agreed to stay at the Bishop house until she was no longer dependent on the wheelchair. With one broken arm and one broken leg, it would be impossible for her to even get around her own apartment by herself.

But once they left the hospital, the Dunham girls went back to Olivia's apartment for one final day of rest before Rachel and Ella's flight back to Chicago the next morning. Peter would be by then to pick everyone up. For now, Rachel was helping Olivia pack her things for her temporary stay at the Bishop house.

"I didn't know his house would be wheelchair accessible."

"It's for his father," said Olivia. "He's not handicap yet but Peter is looking forward to the day when he'll no longer be physically able to drive their car."

Rachel laughed. "Oh wow."

"Rachel, are you sure that Ella should be going home this soon?"

"Well, she's been through enough here," said Rachel. "And she's been awfully quiet since we were at the hospital, hasn't she? I'm sure she'll get better once we get home. Greg wants to see her back right away. I can keep her out of school for a few days but no more than that."

"It's just…" said Olivia. "Peter and I need to check her for something before you two leave tomorrow."

Rachel looked very worried. "Test her for what?"

"It's nothing…" Olivia said nervously. "It's just something we should check her for just in case."

"Well if they didn't find anything at the hospital, then she's fine."

"It's not something that any hospital would find."

"Olivia, you're really starting to scare me now. Just tell me what's wrong…" Rachel suddenly sniffed the air. "That smells like…"

The women heard a scream coming from the very room Ella was in. "Ella!" Rachel hurried down the hall to find smoke seeping out from the room. She went in to find a fire around Ella's bed, but she was quickly able to pull Ella out of the room and took her to Olivia.

"Fire extinguisher," said Olivia. "Under the kitchen sink!"

Rachel hurried to the kitchen to grab the fire extinguisher and put out the fire in the bedroom. Fortunately only the bed was scorched, but the hallway now smelled like an ashtray.

"What happened, Ella?" Olivia asked her.

"I don't know," Ella cried. "I had a bad dream and then there was a fire. I didn't do anything to make it happen. I promise."


	9. Chapter 9

**Uh-oh. Guess who's been getting lazy with their updates. That's right...ME! Thank goodness I finished "OLIVE" and now only have two unfinished fics to focus on. But man is "Subject 13" going to be pounding me silly with new plot bunnies!**

* * *

Immediately, Peter was called over and he assessed the damage in the hallway of Olivia's apartment. "Geez! What happened?"

"Ella had a bad dream and then there was a fire," Olivia said quietly, trying to get Peter to read her mind on what was really going on here.

Rachel said, "Well, it was probably just a short circuit, right? Those things happen."

Ella went over to tug at her mom's shirt. "Mommy…I don't wanna go home. I'm scared."

"Scared? Ella you have nothing to be scared about. You're perfectly fine."

"Please, mommy?"

"Now Ella, that's enough." Rachel grabbed her daughter's arm gently. "You're coming home with me tomorrow and that's fina….AH!" She quickly let go at the sudden feeling of a burning sensation…a bold pink spot was now covering most of her palm.

"What happened?" asked Peter. Rachel hurried over to the sink to run her palm over cold water. "I don't know. I just touched Ella's arm and it started burning up."

Ella ran back to the guest room and her cries could be heard throughout the apartment. "Ella?" Olivia tried to follow her as much as her wheelchair could take her but she couldn't get down the hall.

"Olivia?" The two Dunham sisters looked at each other with terror on both faces. "What's going on?" Rachel asked. "What's wrong with my baby?"

Olivia didn't know what to say but Peter stepped in. "You know what I think?" said Peter. "I think Ella just has a fever. That could explain why she was so hot when you touched her, Rachel."

Rachel looked at her palm. The mark was still there now looking like a bad sunburn. "I…I don't know what to think," she said. "If she's sick, then maybe Ella's not ready to get back on a plane. But I have to be back in Chicago tomorrow. My job…"

"It's okay, Rachel," said Olivia. "She can stay with me until she gets better. It's gonna be alright."

"But you're in a wheelchair…and aren't you staying at Peter's?"

"Hey, there's always room for one more stray at my place," said Peter.

"And what about her schooling?"

"I wouldn't worry about that," said Olivia. "Considering that Peter and Walter are geniuses. She'll be years ahead the rest of her first grade class by the time you come back."

Rachel sighed. "Well…I should probably go talk to her then." When she went down the hall, Olivia's eyes started to water. "Peter…"

"Olivia, you don't think…"

"I know," said Olivia. "But now I think we do have to test her."

* * *

It wasn't easy for Rachel to leave her daughter in the state she was in, but she trusted Olivia and she trusted Peter. Greg was not going to be happy to learn about everything that's happened and that Ella would not be coming home but if this unorthodox treatment worked, then they could quickly get on with their lives again.

The first place Peter took Olivia and Ella to was the lab. Walter and Astrid were waiting for them there.

"Do you have to go work, Aunt Liv?" asked Ella.

"No baby," she said. "Uncle Walter needs to take a look at you to see if you're okay." Because Olivia was stuck in her wheelchair, Astrid had to take Ella to her office and help her change into a patient gown. The patient gown was rather oversized and she was nearly tripping over her own feet on her way to Walter.

"Why hello, Stella!" greeted Walter. "Have a seat on the table for me." Olivia wheeled herself over to Ella to stay as close to her as she could. "Now the first thing I'll need is a blood sample."

"A what?" said Ella.

Walter pulled out a syringe. "I just need to draw a small amount of blood from you to test for abnormalities."

Upon seeing the syringe, Ella began to sweat and panic. Flashbacks of needles going into her bodies and blood everywhere was all she could think of.

"NO!" she screamed. "No shots!"

"ELLA!"

But Ella quickly rolled off the table and sped back towards the direction of Olivia's office.

"Ella, come back!" Peter tried to go after her.

"Peter, stop!" Astrid pulled Peter back when she spotted the horrid mess on the floor. From the table that Ella was lying on just a moment ago, a small trail of blood had formed all the way across the lab to the office that Ella had now locked herself in. The blood trail began to boil and suddenly tiny needles began to stick out.

"Shit!" said Peter as he backed away from the trail of blood. "What the hell is this?"

everyone was freaking out about the freakish blood trail but Olivia was more worried that Ella might be hurt. "Ella!" she called out. "Ella, are you hurt?"

"She's not hurt," said Walter. "Nor is she bleeding."

"Then what the hell is this?" said Astrid. "And please don't tell me I have to clean it up."

"It's her fear," said Walter. "She's leaving a trail of her fear of blood and needles in a physical form."

Olivia wheeled over to her office. "Ella? Baby, talk to me." She could hear Ella sobbing on the other side of the door. "The bad man, he did something to me, didn't he?"

"I don't know," said Olivia. "But if you don't come out, we'll never know. Please, Ella?"

"No needles," she said.

"Okay. No needles. We'll find out another way."

As Astrid was left cleaning up the disturbing nightmarish mess of blood and needles on the floor, Walter and Peter set up their makeshift brain scanner behind a protective wall. "Okay, this time…," he said. "…let's hope this doesn't result in the entire lab getting zapped."

Ella was brought back out again with gentle coaxing from Olivia but she was still alone as she got on the table and Walter was setting up a brain scanner over her head.

"Peter, do you think you could hold Ella's hand?"

Peter wasted no time in granting Olivia's request. He knew that Ella was scared and with Olivia unable to move Ella was lacking a support system. He squeezed Ella's hand gently. "You're going to be fine, Ella." Ella remained nervous as wires were stuck to her head but as long as they weren't penetrating her, Ella slowly but surely began to relax her entire body.

"Now just relax, Ellen." Walter turned the machine on and Ella closed her eyes. The adults gathered behind a computer as the machine began to scan Ella's brain. After a few minutes, Walter was getting excited. "Right there." He pointed to a strange cloud of black in the computer scan of Ella's brain. "Fascinating, the presence is quite stronger than in any of the children in the original experiments. Belly was right. A new human host can regenerate the drug to extreme levels."

Olivia looked at Walter coldly. "Walter…just say it."

"Well there is no doubt now. The evidence is there," said Walter. "Ella is indeed Cortexiphan positive."

Peter shook his head. "This has to be a mistake. The blood transfer couldn't possibly…"

"But it can," said Walter. "Thanks to the regeneration of the drug, I say little Elbow here has stronger levels of Cortexiphan in her young body than in our very own Agent Dunham."

Olivia was choking up. "There has to be a way to get it out of her. We can do another blood transfusion."

Walter shook his head. "Once the Cortexiphan in the blood reaches the human brain, it will permanently bind itself to the entire central nervous system. It can't be destroyed unless you were to remove the brain and spinal cord all together."

"No…" Olivia broke down, worse than she ever had when she learned that she had the drug in her own body.

"Olivia." Peter tried to reach out to her. "It's gonna be okay."

"No, Peter. It's not. Don't you understand? Having Cortexiphan…it did terrible things to me as a child…things I wouldn't wish on my own worst enemy. All I wanted for Ella was for her to be normal. She can't go home like this."

Astrid had helped Ella off the scanning machine and she spotted her Aunt Liv crying. "Aunt Liv, am I sick? Am I dying?"

In Olivia's mind, she might as well be. How on earth was Olivia was going to explain everything to her? The nightmares? The visions of a falling world? The mysterious fires? Rachel wasn't going to understand and neither was Greg. Ella was tainted now. How was her life going to be normal again after this?

"No baby." Olivia's mask was failing on her. "It's going to be fine."


	10. Chapter 10

Walter insisted on doing more tests but Olivia was not going to let him. What happened in the lab spoke for itself. Not only did Ella have Cortexiphan, but the abilities she gained from it were nothing like Walter had ever seen in any of the trials.

"Belly would be extremely fascinated with you," he said to Ella.

"Walter, just stop," said Peter.

Ella had not been talking much since arriving at the Bishop house. For their first night here, Olivia insisted that they cook Ella's favorite spaghetti for dinner. Even at the dinner table Ella was poking at her food only taking in a few bites at a time.

"Are you sure you don't want more?" asked Olivia.

"I want to go to bed."

"Okay." Olivia didn't argue with want Ella wanted. "Peter, where's your lift to go upstairs?"

"It's been acting up," he said. "I could take Ella upstairs and…"

"You could carry Agent Dunham upstairs, Peter!" said Walter.

"It's fine, Walter. It'll be too much trouble. I can take the living room couch. Just please help Ella get some sleep."

Peter took Ella upstairs to show her the guest bedroom leaving Olivia and Walter alone.

"Tomorrow I want to try…"

"No!"

"You didn't let me finish."

"We've done enough tests on her to know what's wrong, Walter. And we know how it works. She was so scared, she made that trail of blood appear. We know she can activate her ability when she's scared. You don't need to do a hundred tests on her to prove that like you did with me!"

"It wouldn't be wise to overlook her particular case, Agent Dunham."

Olivia wheel over practically hitting Walter's leg and then reached up to grab his shirt. The glare she gave Walter was cold as her voice. "I was able to go over 20 years without knowing you turned me into a freak. I'm not letting anything that you've done to me happen to Ella. So no more tests, no more activating any fears. The only thing you're going to focus on is finding a way for her to control it…without any drugs or needles…and you'll do what I say, Walter or I'll make you sorry."

She let go of him just in time to see Peter coming back down with a bunch of pillows. "You sure you'll be okay down here, Olivia?"

"I'll be fine," she said as she turned away from Walter.

* * *

Peter did his best to construct a comfortable environment for Olivia to sleep in. She had a pile of pillows to rest her broken leg on. Her broken arm, she was just gonna have to manage the pain.

There were too many noises upstairs as Olivia tried to sleep. Most of which sounded like Walter's footsteps and sometimes singing. She felt terrible to not being able to go upstairs and keep Ella company in that kind of environment.

In the middle of the night, Olivia had given up on any possibility of sleeping comfortably and just sat up on the couch.

"Aunt Liv?"

Olivia didn't even notice that Ella standing there in the living room. "Ella, what's wrong?"

"I don't wanna sleep Aunt Liv." As she got closer Olivia could see that Ella was pressing a bunch of tissues against one arm. "Look."

The tissue had a lot of blood of them. "Oh my god, Ella!" Olivia quickly looked over her arm. There wasn't even a sign of a cut or a scratch all. Just a small spot where Ella had the needle injected into her for the blood transfusion. "You're not hurt?"

"I dreamed it, Aunt Liv," she said. "I dreamed I was in that house again and there was blood all over my arm and when I woke up…I think I got blood on the bed."

"It's okay," said Olivia. "Do you need to clean up?"

Ella nodded and Olivia pointed her to the nearby bathroom. When she was done, Ella went straight to Aunt Liv. "I'm sorry I woke you."

Olivia shook her head. "I don't want to sleep either. Come here."

Ella went over and joined Olivia on the sofa. "I was dreaming about a fire when it happened."

"When what happened Ella?"

"When I put the bed on fire at your house."

"You didn't cause that fire, Ella. You might think you did but it's…hard to explain what's happening to you."

"Uncle Walter's not a doctor, is he?"

Olivia squeezed her hand. "Ella, the important thing is that you're going to be okay, and we're all going to do everything we can to help you get through this."

They heard fast footsteps coming down the stairs. Peter appeared and looked at the girls on the sofa rather wide-eyed. "Olivia? Ella?"

"What's wrong, Peter?"

"Nothing it's just…I was just checking in on Ella and I saw her bed empty with blood on the sheets. I got worried."

Ella smiled. "I'm okay, Uncle Peter."

"You sure?"

"It's fine," said Olivia. "It was just something she was dreaming about."

"I'm scared if I dream something it'll happen when I wake up," said Ella. "Like with the fire."

"You know, Peter has a magic formula for that don't you? Every night, before he goes to sleep, he tells himself to not dream tonight as much as he can."

"Yeah," said Peter. "But this is not a normal case."

Olivia gave him that look. Was he serious? Since when has anything for them been considered normal?

"I got something even better that you'll like, Ella. And I assure you, it's not a Walter concoction. I just need to go to the kitchen and whip it up."

When Peter went into the kitchen, Ella leaned over to whisper to Olivia. "I still think about the man I killed, Aunt Liv."

"That wasn't your fault, Ella."

"I didn't want to shot him," said Ella. "I only wanted to scare him. I wanted him to stop hurting us."

"I know, and it was very brave of you."

Ella went very silent and just started to quietly cry again. But Olivia was there to wipe the tears. "Mommy will be very mad, if she knew I touched your gun."

"She doesn't have to know, Ella," said Olivia. "Besides she would be even more mad with me. Your mother didn't approve of me being a cop at first."

"Why not?"

"Because I would be using a gun." Olivia paused. "Ella when I your age…I shot someone too…with a gun."

Ella was shocked. "You?"

"Yeah… a long time ago, your grandma got married to someone after grandpa died. And you're mother and I were just small children. We had no choice but to live with him. We thought he was okay but…he wasn't. He was a very scary man, and he would hurt other people around him. And then he started hurting me…"

Ella was crying again. "Why? Why would he hurt you Aunt Liv? You're a good person."

"He was angry with me," said Olivia. "He thought I hated him for no reason and would say to people that I act out on purpose to make him like a bad stepfather infront of grandma. The truth was, I did have my reasons. I was terrified of him. And before long, it wasn't just me he was hurting. He started hurting your grandma and then…"

"He hurt mommy?"

Olivia nodded. "Yes, he did. One night it got really bad and I got scared, and so did your mom. He was more angry and terrifying than he ever was. I knew I had to do something. I knew he had a gun because he would threaten us and say he would use it someday on grandma…and us. I knew I had to get to that gun tonight before he did…and I did. Your mother saw the whole thing though. She saw me shoot him and she was never able to get that image out of her head. That's why she hates guns. But I had to do what I did or none of us would've been alive in that house by the end of that night."

"You were very brave, Aunt Liv."

She smiled. "Thank you, Ella."

"Did you kill him? The scary man you shot?"

Olivia looked at Ella in the eyes and said "yes…I killed him."

"Mommy never told me about him. She said that grandma only married grandpa."

"And she was right to," said Olivia. "But I think you've done enough growing up this week to handle a rough story like that."

"Hey." Peter had been standing by the living room entrance for who knows how long with looked like a glass of chocolate milk in his hand. "It's a little something I made some years ago to help me sleep without dreaming. It's rough to swallow but I added some chocolate to help."

Ella took the glass in her hands. "It's better to not think about it and just swallow," said Olivia.

She gulped the whole glass and swallowed. "Eew, that tasted like…smelly egg nog."

Peter laughed. "It works really quick though."

And soon enough Ella was yawning. "Can I stay down here tonight?"

"Of course."

Olivia handed Peter a pillow and some blankets and he set up a makeshift bed for Ella on the loveseat. He guided Ella to the loveseat and could hear her mumbling over and over again "don't dream tonight…don't dream tonight…"

He tucked her in and soon Ella was fast asleep.

"Thank you, Peter," said Olivia.

"Why did you lie to her? About killing your stepfather?"

"I didn't want her to feel alone. And she's been terrified enough. She doesn't need to know that he's still out there stalking me," she said. "Right now, we need to focus on how to help Ella through this."

* * *

**I love protective Olivia! Well at this point I have no freaking clue where this story is gonna go. I can either end it here or make things more miserable for poor Ella given her state. Any ideas are welcome via PMs. Thanks. :)**


	11. Chapter 11

Into the next week, routine was slowly starting to return for the Fringe group. Even Olivia was doing plenty of paperwork in her wheelchair. The important thing now was to continue on with the cases. Even though Reginald Thorton, the alleged kidnapper and serial killer of Cortexiphan children was dead, it didn't hurt to research his history just in case. They didn't want to risk the possibility of anyone connected to Thorton who might have been informed about Cortexiphan and the experiments.

All the while, Ella remained quiet, distant, and isolated. Peter's dreamless potion helped her get some rest without making anything happen. Walter was watching Ella like a hawk…not as a babysitter…but for observation purposes. Since he was not to experiment on Ella, he would take notes and ask her weird and relentless questions only to back off if anyone else made him. So far his notebook was halfway filled with notes from a week's worth of observation.

But Olivia was taking note of Ella as well. She didn't smile anymore. It used to be that Ella would interrupt Walter's stories to question the sense in them but now she just kept quiet. Sometimes she would sit on the couch all curled up silently praying that she wouldn't cause anything bad to happen. No matter what Olivia or Peter did to make her feel better, she showed very little emotion or response.

It wasn't until Olivia was alone in her office when she finally broke down. Ella wasn't Ella anymore but rather a shadow of her former self. So much like her aunt, Ella had lost her innocence to pure fear. In way Olivia blamed herself. Thorton came for her. If Ella hadn't been with her the moment they were taken, she could've been spared and she wouldn't have to be here, hiding from the world in shame of her strange "illness".

"Aunt Liv, how long can I stay here?" she asked her.

"As long as you want," said Olivia, although she knew that Rachel was only going to allow a month at most before making Ella come home.

"I'm scared to go home. I'm scared that the other kids at school will think I'm weird…or that I'll hurt mommy again."

"Well, Ella. Everyone's a little weird…even me. I know what you're going through, Ella. This illness that you have…I know it cause I had it too, when I was your age."

Ella was looking very hopeful now. "Really? Did you get better?"

"I…" Olivia struggled to find the right words. "It's not as bad as it was, when I was a child."

Ella frowned. "It's never gonna go away, is it?"

Olivia shook her head. "No."

"But I don't want to do bad things, Aunt Liv." A few tears cascaded down Ella's cheeks.

"Come here."

Ella went over to Olivia so she could out and wipe the tears from her niece's eyes. "What you and I have…it doesn't have to be a bad thing. You know, a long time ago someone told me that you have to imagine how you want things to be and then you can try and change them."

"Who told you that?"

Olivia smiled. "That's the funny thing. I don't remember. But when I found out about my illness, those words really stuck with me because I wanted so bad for this to be anything but horrible. And I really believe that you can do good things, Ella. You just have to see it and want it to happen and they will."

Peter came into the living room. "You ready to go, Liv?"

"Where are you going?" Ella asked.

"Peter's taking me to the hospital for a checkup. Are you going to be alright with just Walter here?"

Ella, in all honesty was unsure, but this time around she seemed determined to put on a brave face for her aunt.

"And remember," said Peter. "If my father asks you to do anything, you don't have to do it. You just say 'no', okay?"

"Yes, Uncle Peter." She wrapped her arms around her aunt. "I want you to be all better, Aunt Liv. So you can do good things again." Ella was willing it with all her might and even imagined her aunt getting up free of her casts becoming her normal self for the first time but when she let go, nothing changed. She understood, that these things take time but still. She wanted her aunt to get better so she can show and teach her more about their strange illness.

When she let go, Olivia felt very strange, almost numb, but she shook it off. "Thank you, Ella."

* * *

Olivia began to feel more unusual as she was getting her x-rays done. She was no longer feeling any pain in her broken limbs and started to worry as if something was wrong. She wasn't going to let Peter know that though.

"Do you it was a good idea to leave your niece alone with my father?" Peter asked her.

"I wouldn't worry," said Olivia. "Ella's a smart girl and I've warned Walter to not do anything stupid.

The doctor came into the room with a very baffled looked on her face as she flipped through the X-ray photos. "Um…Agent Dunham, how long ago did you say that the injuries occurred?"

"About two weeks ago."

Instantly Peter became worried. "Is something wrong?"

"Well…no," said the doctor. "That's the funny thing. Agent Dunham, our X-rays show that your leg and arm are completely healed. It's unheard of to have those kinds of injuries heal in only two weeks."

"I haven't felt any pain since we left home to come here," said Olivia. Slowly she got out her wheelchair and managed to stand up without feeling any pain. She managed to wobble several feet across the room until she nearly collapsed but Peter was there to help her. "Peter, I don't feel pain anymore."

The doctor said, "let's get those casts removed," and then left the room to make the necessary arrangements.

"Wow, talk about a miracle, Olivia," said Peter.

"It's not a miracle," she smiled. "It was Ella. She wanted me to get better. She healed me."

* * *

With Peter and Olivia gone, Ella stayed in the living room. She did not feel comfortable being around Walter at the Bishop home. Sometimes she would explore the room only to find a few filled with junk and paper work and funny smells. Walter used one room for experimenting and it smelled like a moldy refrigerator when Ella walked by it.

"Oh, there you are, Elmo." Walter came into the living room chewing on some red vines. He was sporting an unusual pair of gray sweats and a body suit. He was also wearing a sweatband. "It's a lovely day out. I'm off to do some yoga on the front lawn. Care to join to me?"

Remembering Peter's warning, Ella was right to ask, "Is this an experiment?"

"Of course not, my dear. Yoga is a calm soothing exercise. A stress reliever for both the mind and body."

Ella felt a bit naïve but yoga did sounded soothing. She needed something comforting to do, something to take her mind off the terrible things that kept going through her mind. "Okay."

Walter placed a blanket on the lawn for the two of them. Ella followed Walter's lead as he sat on the blanket Indian style.

"Oh!" moaned Walter. "I haven't sat like this in a long time."

"What do we do?" asked Ella.

"Well, the first and foremost is to shut the mind of all the senses."

"How do we do that?"

"You just close your eyes and allow yourself to remain in complete darkness and silence. And then you take deep breaths."

Walter went first, closing his eyes and taking unusual breaths that sounded more like a horse. Ella slowly closed her eyes.

"Pay no attention to what you hear or feel," said Walter. After a few more seconds of unusual horse-breaths he finally opened his eyes. "Now, the next step is to…"

Walter found himself talking to thin air. Ella was no longer sitting across from him on the blanket. In fact, Ella was nowhere to be seen.

"Ellie?"

Walter got up and went up to the front door. Perhaps the child had gotten bored and when back inside. As soon as he opened the door, he called out "Little girl, are you back inside the house?"

There was only silence.

"Hello?" Walter began going through all the rooms in the house, his frustrations increasing with every second. Then he went back outside again. "Little girl? Little girl, I'm afraid this is a very inappropriate time to play games. Your Aunt Olivia and Uncle Peter will be home soon."

The girl wasn't answering to his responses. Walter must've walked around the outside of the house at least five times.

"Oh dear," he cried.

* * *

Ella had closed her eyes to follow Walter's example. For a few seconds she felt nothing but then she felt a cold chill. Wasn't it supposed to be a good day outside? She opened her eyes and nearly fell back in fear. It was suddenly dark now. She looked around and found nothing but a deserted land and scorched trees. There were no houses, no cars, and no Walter.

"Uncle Walter?"

She stood in silence waiting for an answer that didn't come.

"Where am I?"

But she got no responses. She began walking wrapping her arms around herself to fight off the eerily cold chill. She hadn't seen a speck of grass on the ground. After a few steps, she almost tripped over something and looked back to see what it was…it was a pile of old rotting bones. There was nothing more she could see as a fog began to build up around her.

"Aunt Liv!" She cried out into the nothingness around her. "Aunt Liv, help me!"


	12. Chapter 12

"Ella? Ella, we're home."

Olivia seemed genuinely happy for the first time since the kidnapping. The whole ride home from the hospital, she couldn't wait for Ella to see her aunt out of the wheelchair and free of her casts. Ella was a healer. Finally, there was some good she was capable of despite being stricken with Cortexiphan. "Ella?"

Peter heard some rustling upstairs. "I'm guessing she's playing hide-and-seek with Walter." He went upstairs to investigate only to find every single bedroom being turned upside-down. Closets were opened and emptied. Drawers were pulled out of dressers. Everything was a mess. And Walter himself looked every upset, near the point of sweating. "Walter? What the hell is going on?"

Walter was even more nervous now. "I…I…don't know what happened. One minute she was there, the next she was gone. I didn't do a thing, I swear. She just wanted to know."

"She? You mean, Ella?"

Olivia came in and she was getting very worried. "Peter, I can't find Ella, anywhere."

"Neither can Walter."

Had Peter not been there, Olivia could've easily lunged at Walter but he stepped in to form a barrier. Olivia was not happy. "What happened?"

"We were just doing some yoga. She wanted to join. No tests. I only closed my eyes for a second." Walter was mumbling now, almost to the point of crying as he was running out of words or thoughts that would make any sense.

"I'm filing a missing persons report," said Olivia. As far as she knew, Ella was not the type who would ever wander off from home for any reason. It only meant that she might have been kidnapped.

But after countless hours, no one found anything. Peter and Olivia knocked on every door in the neighborhood. Someone had to have seen something if they were in the front yard. Only a few recalled the girl and the old man sitting out in the yard together but beyond that, nothing.

"Olivia, you need to rest."

"Ella's not home, Peter. You think I'm going to take it easy?"

"It's 2am, and everyone's already doing what they can to find her."

"I can't believe this is happening again." She started to cry but Peter wrapped his arms around her. "She's already been through so much."

"Olivia," said Peter. "A few hours. Do you think you could get some rest for at least a few hours?"

Olivia shook her head. But at the same time, she realized that nothing was going to get accomplished if she didn't get to sleep soon. After another half-hour of arguing, she finally gave in. Peter promised her that he would stay up and continue the effort to find her niece while she went to sleep.

* * *

_Ella was running. Nothing looked familiar. There was no sun, no differentiation between day or night. She hadn't come across any nature but she had come across remnants of buildings here and there._

_"Aunt Liv!"_

_No matter how much she called out for her, Ella only got an echo in return. This place, wherever she was, was one giant void of nothing…_

_…and she was trapped._

_Tired and exhausted, Ella finally curled up and sobbed._

_"Aunt Liv…"_

* * *

"Ella!"

Olivia had jumped out of bed. How could she not realize it before? Peter hurried into the room after hearing the cries. "Olivia, what happened?"

"I saw her, Peter. I saw Ella!"

"You were only dreaming."

"I don't think so," said Olivia. She hurried to Walter's room to wake him up. "Walter?"

Walter quickly thrashed in the bed. "Please don't hurt me, Agent Dunham. I'm sorry I lost little Delta."

"Walter, I know where Ella is."

"What?"

"She crossed over," said Olivia.

Peter was shocked. "That can't be possible."

"She has Cortexiphan in her blood. It is possible," said Walter.

"But I don't think she's in the other universe. I think she's somewhere else. The place I saw in my dream looked nothing like it. It looked more like a void, like an empty, lonely place. She was so scared."

"Then it had to have been a dream," said Peter.

"Or maybe not," said Walter. "If little Cinderella has Agent Dunham's Cortexiphan in her system, then a connected consciousness can develop between those who share the same blood. Agent Dunham can see into the child's mind while she is in a heightened state of fear…the same type of fear that can activate Agent Dunham's abilities."

"Then we can communicate with her? We have to help her get back here."

"Unfortunately, that's not possible," said Walter. "The emotions can only be transferred one way, from recipient to donor."

Olivia had one idea. "What about the tank?"

Peter looked at her. "Are you serious? You mean use the tank to contact her, right?"

"No, I mean to go after her."

"That's crazy, Olivia. She's not in the same universe we've been to. It's a completely different world that none of us have ever heard or seen."

"But I can get there. I'm the only who's capable of finding her and I can get us both back."

"I'm afraid my son is right about crossing into a completely new universe Agent Dunham," said Walter. "But I do believe there is a way."

* * *

The three of them hurried to the lab and Peter found himself prepping the tank again. "I can't believe you're doing this, Olivia."

"I'm not leaving her there alone." Walter was prepping Olivia for the tank. "When you go in, you'll need to be in a subconscious state. One that is conscious enough to allow you to focus on crossing over and at the same time, you must be able to envision the world that Ellis is trapped in or you may end up in a completely different universe altogether."

"Wonderful," said Peter.

Walter injected a syringe into Olivia's body. "This will allow you to remain conscious while in your dream state."

Peter helped Olivia into the tank. "You know I hate when you do this."

"I know," said Olivia.

"Just come back, okay? I don't wanna lose you again."

"I will." But Peter knew regardless, Olivia would not come back to this world without Ella. This felt like a suicide mission like all the other trips she made in the tank but this particular one had a stronger motive at hand, one that she wasn't going to back away from.

Olivia was now left lying in the darkness of the tank. She was fully clothed for wherever she was going to.

_'Agent Dunham? Are you getting sleepy?'_

_'Yes,' she yawned._

_'Good.'_

_After a few minutes, Olivia could see Ella, curled up in a ball in that strange desolate place she saw in her dream and it was killing her._

_'Walter? Walter, it's Ella! I see her.'_

_'Good. Now concentrate on that place, Agent Dunham. You'll need to use the same method of crossing over that you've used in the past.'_

_'I need to be afraid?'_

_'Yes.'_

Of course for Olivia that wasn't going to be very hard. She was already beyond terrified for Ella's safety being trapped in a strange place she didn't know how to get out of.

The fear began to take over as Olivia began to dream of Ella more and more. She was then blinded by a yellow light until she finally felt herself drop onto dry land. Her clothes now weighed down from being soaking wet. She pulled herself up and looked around. There was no life. Only darkness and silence.

"Ella?"

No response.

"Ella!"

It was then when Olivia remembered that Ella had crossed over from the Bishop's house and she crossed over from the lab. Fortunately, the two places weren't that far away from each other in the normal world, but she knew she had a long trek ahead of her if she was ever to get Ella out of here.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry this took so long but yeah, writer's block and distractions will do that to a writer. I now plan to wrap this up in a few chaps all nice and pretty. I just need one more conflict and evil cliffhanger to entice you all and get ya back into this story. Come on. You know you love a good cliffhanger.**

* * *

She tried tracing her steps from the lab to where the Bishop home would be, about a few miles in one direction. But being surrounded by nothingness and not having any light, made it impossible for Olivia to know if she was even going in the right direction.

She continued to call out for Ella. There were risks in doing so. There was no telling if they were the only ones here but it was Olivia's only means left of finding her.

The wind began to pick up and blew dust everywhere. It was bad enough that Ella was freezing, but now she felt like she was suffocating from all the bad air. She fortunately had found a hollow tree and took shelter there. A few hours later, she would hear a strange noise in the wind.

"Ella!"

She continued to listen.

"Ella!"

Someone was calling out for her and it was a female voice too. A few more times she would hear her name, wishing and hoping for the voice to be familiar. A part of Ella wanted to come out and run to the voice right away, but she took her time considering this. After all, what if it was a trap?

Eventually, Ella found the courage to call back.

"Aunt Liv?"

She waited.

"ELLA!"

The voice was urgent now.

"Aunt Liv? Is it you?"

"Ella! It's me!"

"Where are you?"

"I'm coming. Just keep calling out for me. I'm almost there."

"I'm over here Aunt Liv!"

Olivia moved faster than ever to reach the source of the voice.

The moment they found each other, the girls ultimately cried and hugged. "Aunt Liv."

"You're okay, baby girl. I'm here now."

"But how did you…" Ella looked up at her aunt in shock. "Aunt Liv, you're not in a wheelchair anymore!"

Olivia smiled. "You healed me, Ella. You wished for me to get better, and I did."

"I did that?"

"Yeah, you did." She hugged Ella even tighter. "I knew you could do good things."

* * *

Pacing around the lab for hours wasn't gonna make Olivia or Ella come back any faster and Walter was right to point that out. "Peter, this is going to take some time."

"We don't even know what universe they're in and something bad could've happened to them by now. Excuse me if I'm losing my patience."

In truth, it would've been easier if the girls were stuck in the other universe, in Peter's old home. But the world Olivia saw Ella in was nothing like the one she had been trapped in for two months. This world was different, like walking into an empty room of nothing.

"I do believe that Agent Dunham and the little girl could be in a void verse."

Peter jumped. "A what?"

"A void verse. A universe that has yet to be created and unraveled. Belly and I, we attempted to open up another gateway, one leading to an empty void where we could send Olive and the other Cortexiphan children to create and construct a world they imagined within that void."

"Then what happened?"

"Agent Dunham happened," said Walter. "She had difficulty building than the other children. So in much in fact, that it deterred the visions of the other children from fully completing tasks in the void. We were forced to abandon it. The risk of the children getting permanently trapped in that world was too high. But I believe little Elleroy's ability to enter that world was of no coincidence."

"Well how did you get them out of there before?" said Peter.

"Well," said Walter. "Normally they come out when they're ready."

"What?"

"My son, you don't understand. The only way for Olivia and the girl to come home is to fill that universe using their Cortexiphan abilities. Olivia never got through step one of the task. She needs to imagine just one thing in that universe or she's not going to come back."

Peter wanted to grab his father by the collar then. "Why didn't you tell her this before she went into the tank?"

Walter apologetically replied. "I only remembered just now."

* * *

As it got colder and darker, Olivia gathered nearby branches to create a small campfire and the girls huddled close.

"Aunt Liv, how will we get home?"

"I don't know," she said. "I'm still trying to work that one out. We'll be okay as long as we stick together."

"But I'm cold. I don't like this place."

"Well then, we're just going to have to close our eyes and pretend we're somewhere else."

Ella remembered her aunt's assuring optimism when the bad man held them both in captivity and that didn't work out for them well. "I don't think it will work this time, Aunt Liv."

"Ella. You know, you're a very special girl. And I know if you believe really hard, things won't be like they were last time. There's no one to hurt us here. Won't you try?"

"Well…" Ella continued to rub her arms. "I just don't want it to be so cold."

"That's a start."

"And I want the sun to come out. Maybe we can see some flowers."

Olivia smiled. "That would be nice. Now you just have to…" She looked up. Far up in the sky, the darkness slowly began to fade and a yellow light seeped its way through.

"Is that the sun, Aunt Liv?"

Olivia noticed that Ella was no longer shaking or rubbing her arms. The cold was no more. The air was warm and even Olivia's clothes were drying up. With every second the sunlight began to lit up the land around them. Ella looked down in curiosity at the small green sprouts that were slowly sticking out of the broken earth.

"Ella…" Olivia smiled, nearly laughed in disbelief. The sprouts were the very flowers that Ella had requested. "What kind of flowers were you thinking of?"

"What?"

"The flowers. Just vision in your head. What color are they?"

"Yellow," she said. "Yellow carnations and some daisies…"

The sprouts were growing bigger and were slowly opening their buds.

"…and some white tulips."

Within a few minutes, the Dunham girls watched at the very flowers that Ella had imagined began to reveal themselves to the sun. Daisies, carnations, tulips, in all the various colors that Ella wanted were growing in a circle all around them.

Ella knew what was happened but had trouble believing it. "What…what did I do?"

"You did exactly what you wanted to, Ella." Olivia looked down and picked some of the flowers. "Whatever you want and imagine for yourself, you can make come true."

Ella picked some flowers for herself and for the first time since leaving that island, she was finding hope again. This illness wasn't so bad. Or maybe it wasn't an illness an all but a special ability she had over her surroundings.

There was only one way to find out for sure.

"I want to go home now, Aunt Liv."

Olivia reached out to hold her niece's hand and the two were enveloped by a bright yellow light.

_SCREECH!_

The light vanished and was quickly replaced by two headlights charging toward them. Olivia quickly leapt to shield Ella.

The van had stopped infront of the girls just in time. Two men came out to inspect.

Since it was nighttime, Olivia and Ella were still disoriented and confused.

One of the men said, "I don't believe it. It's them."

"Well, don't just stand there," said the other. "Grab them before they get away."

Upon hearing those words, Olivia quickly grabbed Ella and tried to run but felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck. Ella screamed until she was silenced by the same sharp pain in her neck. The girls were loaded into the van.

When the men got in they made a call. "This is Russ. We 're on our way."

The voice on the receiver asked, "the child is with you?"

"Yeah, we found her and the woman in the middle of the street."

"Just get them here right away. Everything's prepared."

Russ knew it was only a matter of time. The bombs were in place in New York and Chicago and ready to go. All they needed now was the little girl's abilities to activate them.


	14. Chapter 14

The computer was beeping loud and rapidly. Peter was already on it hurrying over to Walter. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Walter kept shaking his head and was sweating. "I don't understand it. This reading indicates their activity in the void verse but it's completely blank. It's usually an indicator that Agent Dunham has returned…or has deceased."

"She has to be back," said Peter.

"But something's still wrong," said Walter as he looked at another screen. "Her fear level is still intact and has gone up."

This was definitely not turning out how either of them had expected. Peter grabbed his jacket. "I'm going to find them. They could've crossed back from someplace else."

"I do have something that will help," said Walter. He hurried to a cabinet and dug through for a minute until he pulled out what resembled a speed gun. "Agent Dunham still has the tank drug in her system. If she's still afraid and back in our universe we'll be able to track her and little Elvis by looking for Cortexiphan activity."

They grabbed the laptop they were working on and the ray gun and Peter started driving. They headed to their house first. When they got close Walter read some activity but it was not strong enough. "They were here," he said.

"Something did happen."

"They could be anywhere now," said Walter sadly.

"Now's not the time to give up," said Peter. "Just keep reading that thing. I'll drive all over Boston if I have to."

* * *

Olivia woke to sore limbs from lying on the hard cold floor of the warehouse. She could see everything around her including men in lab coats who were gathered around a small table. Upon seeing Ella lying there, the electrodes attached to her head, Olivia quickly leapt towards them only to be held back by the shackles to her legs and arms chaining her to the back wall.

"Ella!"

"Shut up." A nearby guard gave Olivia a bruising jab with the butt of his gun. "Or we'll put you to sleep."

"What are you doing to her?"

The guard said nothing. At the table, Ella was slowly waking up but was immobile. She was completely strapped and bound to the table and could barely move her head. All she could see was a strange looking video screen that hovered above her like those annoying lights that blinded her in the dentist's office.

She started to whimper and cry when she saw the faces…doctors who clearly had no interest in helping her but resembled the man who had tried to experiment on her and her aunt.

"Ella, just relax," said the doctor. He pulled out a syringe and injected the contents into Ella's arm.

"Don't touch her, you bastard!"

The sound of her aunt's voice echoed around Ella. "Aunt Liv?" But it was too late, the moment the needle went in, Ella felt a radiating pain throughout her body and suddenly she began to have irritating sensations. Her eyes were wide open and she couldn't close them, not even to blink. Her hearing became more aware and sensitive. She could only gasp. She was too scared to scream.

Olivia helplessly looked on overhearing what the doctor was telling Ella. "We've been looking for you, Ella. We're not going to hurt you. We need you to do something very important for us."

"What?" Ella said weakly.

"You're a special girl now. That means you can make things happen through your emotions. We need you to activate two powerful weapons for us and you're going do it through the power of terror."

Olivia felt her stomach churn. The very act of activating Ella's ability through terror, it was exactly how Olivia's own abilities worked, except she knew that Ella would prove to be a more powerful and more sensitive weapon due to her young age. This was even worse than what Walter did to her as a child. She couldn't let them do this to Ella.

The doctor nodded to another who turned on the machine that Ella was attached to. "Start midway than increase velocity on my signal." As soon as the machine started humming a large satellite dish inside of the warehouse began to turn. "This machine will turn your strongest emotion into waves of energy that will be sent to this satellite and to the powerful bombs in New York and Chicago."

Olivia and Ella both gasped. "Mommy…daddy…"

"I see. Your parents are in one of those cities? Well that won't matter. If this test succeeds you'll belong to us permanently. You're too valuable a weapon to lose."

"No! Ella!"

The guard struck Olivia again.

"Aunt Liv…"

"Little girl, if you want your aunt to live, you'll do exactly as we say!"

"Ella, don't you listen to them," cried Olivia. "Don't let them scare you into anything."

But everyone knew this wouldn't be easy given the situation. Everything was working in the favor of the doctors, as Ella was terrified beyond belief. A few more switches and the doctor brought the strange TV screen closer until it was all she could see. He then placed stereo headphones over her ears. The last thing she heard was the voice of her aunt pleading for her to fight back against fears.

The screen was turned on and Ella could see what looked like blood. Disturbing noises were coming in through the headphones. Her fear was already increasing. Not a good thing. The image changed to what looked like hands…with sharp bloody tools similar to the ones she saw the man was going to use on her aunt and they were opening up a human body. There was no rhyme and reason to what the hands were doing. They were just cutting and pulling out guts with no real intent. This was no operation. This was a sick murderous fiend who kept going further and further.

Because of the drug she was given, Ella couldn't close her eyes nor shut her ears from the disturbing noise, yet it was all her mind could focus on. Ella understood their malicious intent. The more terrified she was, the more likely those bombs were going to go off. But being here, having to see all of these things…her aunt not too, far away likely hurt…and her mom and dad in danger of getting blasted to smithereens along with millions of others…and she would be the one to cause it. How could she not shut her mind off from such terrifying thoughts?

The images of the bodies being cut up and their flesh coming out was giving Ella horrible flashbacks, nightmarish visions of her recent captivity and the doctor could see it. He gave the signal and the dial on the machine slowly turned.

"Ella!" Olivia kept crying out but it was no use. The satellite dish was slowly turning again.

Hopeless as it was, Olivia could see Ella's desperation as she struggled and squirmed about. The straps kept her restrained and the only place she had any freedom was in her hands but she could do very little with them.

But then Olivia saw Ella's hand reach for her pocket. Her fingers managed to dig in and grab hold of something. Peaking out from the pocket, Olivia could see the scrunched up flowers, tulips, carnations, and daisies that Ella had made grow in the void verse.

Ella could feel the flowers grasped in her fingers. Her thoughts turned to the void verse and what her aunt told her. She could make anything happened that she envisioned. Even the doctors knew this. With everything going on through her eyes and ears, her mind turned to those flowers and she held on to the memory as much as she could. She kept her mind on the comforting environment that she created in the strange place she traveled to, filled with even more daisies, carnations, and tulips and just about any other flower that she could think of. It was all she had left to hope for. Thinking of flowers was much better than thinking of bombs.

"It begins now," said the doctor.

* * *

In the depths of an underground sewage system in New York City, two workers were on duty when they turned a corner and saw the giant massive tank that was staring back at them.

"Nobody said anything about a treatment tank getting installed here."

"That's no treatment tank," said one of the workers. "Look!" He point to the side where a series of colorful massive bomb wires and explosives. The walls of the tank were starting to wobble and a cap on top slowly opened.

"S**t! That thing's gonna blow! Run!"

Both of the workers ran only a few feet before deciding on instinct to duck and cover. They were a blasting noise but neither of them were dead. No heat, no fire. Nothing.

They turned around and just sat there in complete puzzlement and bewilderment. From out of the cap of the tank came streams of flowers, colorful and various. They continued to spill out into the sewage water around them.

The two men could have stood there and scratch their heads over the sight of a giant bomb spewing out harmless flowers for hours, but it was best that they got out of there quickly and call in the bomb squad.


	15. Chapter 15

"Here! Turn here, son!"

Peter swerved the car into an alleyway nestled within a cluster of warehouses. "This can't be right, Walter."

"I assure you Agent Dunham's terror levels have intensified." The device was beeping rapidly as they were driving past one long building down the street. "This one, Peter!" Peter stopped the car and could hear a strange humming coming from the one warehouse. "Walter, stay in the car." The closer Peter got to the warehouse, the more cautious he became. He got to one of the windows and could see men with labcoats and guns. He could see machines humming but didn't know their purpose. In the far corner he could see a glimpse of Olivia.

He hurried back to the car. "Walter, call Broyles for backup. Tell him, they got Olivia held up in there.

Walter tried to fiddle with the phone. Peter groaned and grabbed the phone and dialed the number. "Just do it."

The noises of the machinery within the warehouses got louder but suddenly began to sputter.

"What happened?"

A labcoat checked the computers. "This can't be right. The computers say that both bombs were released but there's no reading of any damage."

The head doctor became angry. "Worthless little brat!" He pulled out his gun.

"Stop it!" Olivia cried. "What do you think you're doing?" But no one seemed to be listening to her. The doctor informed his men "grab all the blood samples. We can test them on another child. But these two must be eliminated."

To Olivia's horror, the doctor aimed a gun straight at Ella. He didn't even notice the loud crash from the window until he was tackled to the ground by Peter. The gun fired as the two men were wrestling for it, but fortunately missed it's intended target. Olivia was able to move so that the bullet could weaken her restraints. It didn't completely free her but, she was able to hold one guard back while the others went after Peter. But it was clear that Peter was greatly outnumbered. He was overpowered much quicker than expected.

The doors flew open and a new swarm of being stormed the building. "FBI! We have you surrounded!" In a matter of seconds, the captors were rounded up and Peter was freed. He hurried over to Olivia who was already being freed by an agent.

"Don't worry about me." The moment she was free, Olivia ran straight to the table Ella was still strapped to. Her eyes were still shot open from the drugs. "Ella? Baby, it's Aunt Liv." Olivia reached for the tiny little hand that was still grasping the flowers.

Despite her blurry vision, Ella could see glimpses of her Aunt Liv but it wasn't until she saw Peter by her side, did Ella's smile grew. "I did it, Aunt Liv."

* * *

The next 24 hrs were a blur. Olivia stayed at the hospital with Ella, while Broyles, Walter and Peter went to Chicago and New York to see the intended bombs. They were baffled at the sight of the tanks leaking out with tons of flowers. But it was Walter who discovered how it was possible as he collected a small sample of underdeveloped atoms from one of the sites.

"This is fascinating," said Walter. "These atoms were intended to develop into whatever the computer orders it and the instructions the computer gave is whatever little Elfman was envisioning in her mind...the flowers."

Ella had definitely become a far more powerful Cortexiphan child than any in Walter and Belly's tests. But after what happened with the bombs there was a spark of hope that Ella was capable of controlling her abilities. All she needed was a little more training, something Olivia, Peter, and Walter could easily provide.

Rachel arrived at the Bishop house one early summer morning to surprise Ella. "Mommy!" Rachel was stunned by the joyous look on her daughter's face. "Ella...how are you feeling?"

"I'm going to be okay now, Mommy. I don't need to drink that nasty stuff anymore when I go to sleep."

"What nasty stuff?"

Olivia shrugged. "It was just something to help her sleep."

"My dreams aren't so bad anymore," said Ella.

"Olivia, you seemed to doing well since you broke your limbs."

She smiled. "Ella helped with that, too."

The girls joined the Bishops for breakfast. It was unfortunately Walter's turn to make breakfast that day. "Are you sure you don't want any of my mushroom frittatas, little girl?"

Peter groaned. "Walter, just make some pancakes."

"Oh yes, pancakes for the hero girl."

Rachel asked "hero girl?"

"Don't listen to him," said Peter. He gave Olivia a strange look but Ella noticed and she giggled. "I don't know what you've all been doing...I probably don't wanna know," said Rachel. "But seeing that Ella is better now, she should be able to go back to school in the fall, won't she?"

"Oh that won't be a problem," said Olivia. "Peter has Ella caught up all the way to 4th grade curriculum."

"I can do fractions," said Ella.

Walter butted in and said "and I taught her the basic chemicals and herbs for medicinal inhalants...should she ever need them."

"She won't need them, Walter."

* * *

Ella convinced her mother to let her stay with Olivia for the remainder of the summer but as the days were winding down, Olivia could see Ella stiffing up as if she was scared of the summer ending. On her last day at Olivia's, she sat by Ella's bedside. "I know you love it here, Ella. But you have to go home. Don't you miss your mommy and daddy?"

The little girl nodded. "But I'm scared."

"Scared of what?"

"What if I do something at school? What if I get scared and start a fire?"

"Ella, you're getting so much better."

"I don't know if I can do it, Aunt Liv. How did you?"

Olivia sighed. "I got through because I forgot what it was like to be afraid. It won't be that easy for you but I know you're going to be okay if you just give it a chance." She held her hand. "I think I know how to help you."

* * *

The next week, Ella was beginning second grade in a school in Chicago, she looked out at all of the children who were getting excited about their first day but Ella was shaking, She felt her aunt's assuring hand on her shoulder. "Do you remember what I told you, about imagining things?"

"You said I have to imagine how I want things to be and then I can try and change them." She turned to her aunt and asked "Do you think I can be normal if I want to be?"

But Olivia couldn't answer that. How can she guarantee that Ella could ever be normal if she was going to be Cortexiphan for the rest of her life. They've done everything that can to help Ella. That was all she knew. "Ella, it's okay to be scared. Just remember it doesn't have to always be that way. And if you have any problems at all, you can call me, I'll always be there to help." She hugged Ella very tight. "Thank you for coming, Aunt Liv."

"You know I'll always be there for you." They looked over at Peter who was waiting by a car at the curve. "Uncle Peter will be there too."

Ella waved at Peter and she finally turned and started walking towards the front doors of the school. Olivia headed back to the car.

"Where did you hear that before?"

"Hear what?" asked Olivia.

"That stuff about imagining things how you want them to be?"

For some reason, to hear the words coming from Peter did seem familiar, and very comforting. "It's like I told her. I don't know, I just know it stuck with me." She turn and looked at the entrance to the school one last time but the bell had already rung and all the children were already inside.

"She's going to be fine, Liv."

"And how do you know that?"

Peter squeezed her hand and then he leaned over to give Olivia a kiss on the cheek. "Because she's just like you." They drove away from the school and headed for the airport, knowing that Rachel would be there to pick up Ella after she got through the day.

* * *

**THE END!**

**Yes, It's over unfortunately. I do thank everyone for reading. I also must apologize to my readers for something: I originally promised that this fic was gonna have lots of P/O. Well, clearly that didn't work out. I blame myself. I'm really not good at writing P/O especially with a complex storyline like this thrown into the process. I'm so terribly sorry, benchies. I will do a better attempt at P/O in future fics if I can. Never was good at writing romances. I'm now gonna focus on "Anywhere We Go".**


End file.
